A Saudi man who has spent the past ten years in prison has been sentenced to paralysis for a crime he committed when he was 14. Does he deserve the same fate as his paralyzed victim? (Photo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F)

A Saudi man has been sentenced to paralysis for a crime he committed when he was 14 years old. Global News Desk reports that a court in Saudi Arabia in the town of Al Ahsa has ordered that 24-year-old Ali al Khawaher should be surgically paralyzed for attacking and paralyzing a friend of his with a knife back in 2003. Khawaher will be sentenced to paralysis by surgical intervention.

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The eye-for-an-eye approach to justice has human rights groups up in arms over the Saudi man sentenced to paralysis, with Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director calling the paralysis punishment a form of "torture," according to Global News Desk.

Khawaher's case dates back to 2003 when Khawaher, then 14, stabbed a friend in the back and severed part of the man's spinal cord, paralyzing him from the waist down.

Flogging is mandatory in Saudi Arabia for a number of offences and can also be imposed at the discretion of judges as an alternative or in addition to other punishments.

Punishment by amputation is also enforced in Saudi Arabia for offences mainly limited to cases of "theft", for which the sentence is amputation of the right hand, and "highway robbery", which is punished by cross amputation (right hand and left foot).

Punishments like these fall under the Sharia legal category of "qisa", or "retribution." The law also allows for forgiveness of the crime in exchange for "blood money," according to Global News Desk.

The mother of the man sentenced to paralysis said the family cannot afford the "blood money" price of one million Saudi riyals.